Alex leaned back in his chair, the letter between his fingers. Joe stood in front of the desk and gazed down at him with a proud, determined look on his face and Alex knew why he was here.
‘You have good news for me then, Joe?’
‘I think it’s the way you will look at it, Major,’ Joe said stiffly and formally.
‘Sit down,’ Alex said hospitably, his eyes drifting towards the letter while he waited for Joe to sit.
‘I’d rather stand,’ Joe said brusquely. ‘Abigail and I have just been talking and we’ve come to a joint decision about what you put to us last week.’
As Joe began his explanation, Alex couldn’t stop his eyes flicking over Susannah’s letter and picking out half sentences: ‘… I won’t be picked up and tossed aside… make sure you never marry Rebecca… will make her pay…’
‘Oh good God!’ Alex sprang to his feet and Joe, mistaking his intentions, rounded the desk and grabbed his shoulder.
‘You could at least have the decency to listen to me!’ he shouted. ‘You say the most horrible bloody things to Abigail that a lady doesn’t deserve and when I tell you’re we’re going to do what you want, you jump up in indignation. I’d like to punch your damned face, Major bloody Alexander Fiennes!’
Alex thrust him away. ‘I wasn’t getting at you, Joe. It’s this!’ He pushed the letter under Joe’s face. ‘I have to find Rebecca. She could be in terrible danger!’
Chapter 38
Rebecca couldn’t breathe. She felt she was choking. Her face and shoulders were wet and she couldn’t see properly. For a moment she thought she was dreaming, having a terrible nightmare like Alex used to. She opened her mouth to call his name but it filled with salty water; she swallowed some of it and gagged. She tried to lift her head but something was holding her down, forcing her head into the cold water. In the next second she understood. Susannah Bosanko was trying to drown her just as she had drowned Rowena Carlyon.
Terror coursed through Rebecca and with it came a surge of strength and determination. She wasn’t going to let the evil crone rob her of her life and future with Alex. She struggled, thrashing the water with her arms, then tried to reach up behind and grab the old woman. There was a thud and a sharp pain in the small of her back and she realised that Susannah had thrust her knee there and was pushing down on her with all her weight.
Rebecca flailed out, fighting for her life with the ferocity of a wild animal. Her lungs were bursting. Her brain felt as though it was about to explode and everything turned black. She couldn’t escape; her strength began to seep away and she knew she was going to die.
‘Get away from her, Susannah!’ Alex yelled at the top of his voice as he raced furiously towards them.
Susannah cackled and thrust Rebecca’s head down even deeper under the water. Rebecca had gone limp, her arms hung in the water with her long black hair.
Alex hurled Susannah away from Rebecca with all his might and grabbed a shoulder and a handful of floating black hair, yanking Rebecca’s face out of the water.
‘Becca! Becca, my love.’ He forgot about Susannah Bosanko as in anguish he pulled Rebecca round to him and pushed strands of hair away from her face. Her face was white and purple smudges flecked her closed eyes and lips. He shook her in desperation. ‘Becca, darling, wake up.’
Joe Carlyon stepped round Susannah Bosanko where she had landed in a heap on the creek bank and joined him.
‘Turn her onto her front on the bank and knead her back to get the water out of her lungs,’ he advised urgently.
‘No, it’s better to breathe into her mouth,’ Alex said, tilting Rebecca’s head back over his arm. ‘I learned this from a medic in the trenches.’
‘No one’s going to do anything to try to save that girl! Get away from her, both of you!’
The two men looked up and saw that Susannah had got to her feet and was pointing a small gun at them. Her other hand was hanging at a grotesque angle, broken badly in the fall. Alex scowled and ignored her, putting his mouth over Rebecca’s and breathing deeply into her body.
‘I mean it, Alexander. Put the girl down and move away from her this instant or I will put a bullet through your head.’ Susannah’s voice was a thunderous hiss, bitter and insane yet fully controlled.
‘Get away from us!’ Alex screamed at her.
Susannah pulled back the safety catch and levelled the gun at Alex’s forehead. ‘I meant what I said, Alexander.’
Joe took two menacing paces towards her. ‘If you shoot I’ll throw you in the creek. You can’t kill both of us.’
‘What do I care if I die?’ Susannah laughed with a hint of hysteria. ‘I’m an old woman. I’ve lived my life.’
‘Then let Rebecca and me have ours together, Susannah,’ Alex begged. ‘What will you achieve by killing us? Why does it matter to you what we do?’
‘I couldn’t have Roland Trevallion and his beautiful house so I drowned the girl he loved,’ Susannah rasped. She looked coldly at Joe’s shocked face. ‘That’s right, man. Rowena Carlyon. A relative of yours, I understand. I drowned her in the creek just as I did Rebecca.’
‘No!’ Alex howled like a wounded animal. ‘Why hurt Rebecca?’
‘Because you had my beautiful house. I should have lived there all these years, and I would have done when my great-niece married Miles Trevallion but fate robbed me of my glory a second time. When you came here and called on me, you gave me another chance but then like Roland you fell in love with a creek girl and wanted to marry her instead. I won’t allow it, Alexander. I need you. I won’t stand aside and let you rob me of my destiny again.’
‘How could there be anything between us, Susannah? We’re separated by too many years.’
Susannah lifted her skirt, the gun still in her hand, and swung it back and forth as though she was showing off her figure. In a sing-song voice, she said, ‘I’m young and beautiful. Everybody says so. Don’t you think so, Alexander?’
‘She’s gone raving mad,’ Joe gasped, nudging Alex’s arm.
Alex saw the opportunity too. Gently he laid Rebecca on the ground and ran at the old woman, intending to bring her down in a rugby-style tackle. She cried out as he rushed towards her and as he grasped her body the gun went off.
Blood spurted down Alex’s neck but he didn’t feel any pain. He brought Susannah down with a terrific thump. She shrieked and spat and fought like a savage, clawing at his face with the energy of someone three-quarters her age. She managed to wriggle out from under him, kicking him in the chest and then in his face. She was hatred and fury incarnate. She got herself to her knees and when Alex righted himself she punched him in the face with her good hand.
Alex swept back his hand and slapped her hard. Her wig fell off, revealing a tiny wrinkled head sparsely covered with short wisps of white hair. Susannah bellowed and scrabbled about the creek bank for her gun. Alex saw it first and reached out and picked it up. He fought the raving old woman off and getting to his feet hurled the gun several feet away.
He and Susannah were face to face. Both of them were dishevelled and streaked with blood. He was desperate to get back to Rebecca. She read his thoughts.
‘It’s too late, Alexander.’ Her voice rose, shrill and hysterical. The arteries in her temples stood out against her sagging flesh, her lizard eyes were like sharded glass. It was hard to imagine anything more evil and hideous. ‘I’ve already told you. The bitch is dead.’
‘You should be dead!’ Alex hurled at her.
She laughed her horrible laugh again. ‘How about you and me dying together, Alexander, darling? After I drowned that other girl I developed a terror of the water but now I don’t feel the least bit afraid.’
Susannah thrust out her good hand and grasped a handful of his shirt. They were very near the edge of the bank and Susannah ran backwards, toppling off the edge and taking Alex with her. She didn’t let him go in the water and struggled to push his face under her body and hold him down. She succeeded for a few moment
s, putting her own face in the creek and gulping in mouthfuls of water.
Holding his breath, Alex straightened out his legs, then brought up both his feet and kicked Susannah’s sunken chest with all his might. She lost her hold on him and shot out of the water like some grotesque flying fish. She hit the water again with a mighty splash several feet away from him in the basin of the creek where the water was deepest.
Alex swam for the bank, scrambled out and ran back to Rebecca without a backward glance to witness the fate of the evil old woman.
Joe was bending over Rebecca, his mouth over hers, breathing into her as he’d seen Alex do. ‘Is she breathing? Is she all right?’ Alex gasped.
Joe stopped his resuscitation and Rebecca’s chest rose and fell unaided. She seemed to be breathing on her own. Alex put his ear to her chest and through his panic forced himself to concentrate. Yes, thank God, he could hear a strong heartbeat. But how much had the near drowning affected her otherwise? He lifted her up in his arms. ‘Becca.’ He gave a gentle shake. ‘Becca!’
‘Careful with her sir,’ Joe cautioned. Like Alex he was worried about the possibility of brain damage. He had been with Stanley Wright when he’d drowned at Passchendaele and he had seen other men pulled out of the mud in various stages of drowning. Some had fully recovered, others, starved too long of oxygen, had been permanently mentally disabled.
‘We have to get her to the infirmary, Joe,’ Alex said grimly. ‘Fetch a blanket and tell Abigail what’s happened.’
‘You need medical attention yourself, sir.’ Joe nodded at his bleeding neck. ‘Shall I carry Rebecca to the motorcar?’
‘No, I can manage.’ Alex stood with Rebecca in his arms. ‘If anything happens to her, Joe…’
He turned to the creek and a momentary look of hatred crossed his face. There was not a ripple on the surface but the green material of a dress could be seen floating just under it. ‘We’d better tell the police that there’s been a drowning in the creek.’
* * *
‘Becca,’ Alex whispered softly. ‘What are you doing down here? You should be resting.’
Rebecca was sitting alone on the fallen tree on the creek shore. She smiled up at him. ‘I’ve told you before, Alex, I feel fine now. I’m just sitting here trying to make sense of all that has happened.’
It was only two hours since Alex had brought her back to Trevallion House from the infirmary. She had not wanted to stay cooped up in the house whose fate had affected her so deeply, and she had slipped out the first moment she could. When she’d gained consciousness after nearly being drowned two days ago, she’d longed to be alone to think things over and there was no better place for that than the creek.
Alex sat down close beside her. ‘It might be best to talk about it, darling.’ He couldn’t bear her being so quiet with him and he was worried she was bottling things up. ‘You haven’t mentioned Susannah Bosanko, but you don’t have to be concerned about her any more, Becca. She can’t hurt anyone ever again, we’re safe from her now.’
Rebecca gazed at the creek bank and shivered. She hadn’t seen Susannah Bosanko plunge into the water and drown but she could picture it. ‘She was so evil, Alex. She killed Rowena Carlyon here, she told me all about it.’
‘I know, darling,’ he said grimly. ‘She told me and Joe too.’ She’d been preoccupied with thoughts about Alex while she’d lain recovering and had shied away from thinking about her own ordeal but now she couldn’t hold back the terrible memories. ‘She… she also killed Roland Trevallion.’
Alex breathed out heavily. ‘Did she tell you that too?’
Rebecca shuddered. ‘She made him go down to the cellar at gunpoint, the same gun she used to shoot you. She made him put a rope over a beam and stand on a barrel then she kicked it away. She told me every detail, Alex. She was enjoying reliving it, she enjoyed killing Roland Trevallion.’
‘The woman was insane but she can’t hurt us any more, darling,’ Alex repeated softly. ‘Her body’s been found and disposed of. Even if Roland Trevallion’s ghost haunts the house, she won’t haunt the creek.’
‘Are you sure her body was found, Alex?’ Rebecca looked around the creek as if she was afraid Susannah Bosanko would jump out from behind a bush and threaten her again.
‘I’m absolutely positive, Becca,’ he replied. Placing a gentle hand underneath her chin he made her look up at him. ‘I promise you. The police pulled her out of the creek and I identified her myself She looked more vile than ever but it was definitely her. The same green dress, the same sunken head, the same staring eyes.’
‘Don’t, Alex.’
‘Sorry, darling, but I want you to be certain she’s dead. I don’t want her haunting you in the same way that losing my men haunted me. Is this why you’ve been so quiet with me? Because you’ve been terrified Susannah might still be alive and could still harm you?’
‘No, I’ve been thinking about everything that’s happened since you came to Trevallion. So much has happened between us in such a short time that I needed to be by myself to take it all in.’
Alex looked down at the creek bed. ‘Are you saying things happened too quickly between us that day out on the river, when you agreed to marry me?’
Rebecca took his hand and he squeezed hers tightly but kept his eyes down. ‘Yes, I think it did happen too quickly, Alex. I knew I wanted you more than any other man, but Dad had just died and you were looking for something or someone to rebuild your life with.’
‘But I knew before then that I loved you, Becca,’ he burst in, his face going white.
Rebecca knew she was hurting him, but she needed to say what she had come to realise, and carried on, speaking calmly. ‘But I didn’t love you, Alex. I was attracted to you and I liked being with you. I didn’t know how I really felt about you. I think I agreed to marry you because it seemed the right thing to do after we’d made love.’
Pain shot across Alex’s face. ‘Are you saying you don’t want to marry me now?’
She looked deeply into his dark eyes. ‘No, Alex. What I’m telling you is that I didn’t realise that I loved you until I thought Susannah was going to kill me and deny us our life together. Then when I came round and the doctor at the infirmary told me that you’d been shot, for a moment I thought you were dead and I wished she had succeeded in drowning me.’ She smiled shyly and Alex was bewitched by her. ‘I knew then that I loved you so much, darling Alex, that I couldn’t bear to think of living without you.’
Alex’s face changed from fear and pain to utter relief and joy. ‘I knew you must have had strong feelings for me to give yourself to me, but I thought perhaps you’d agreed to marry me because you felt sorry for me or out of some sense of duty to the Trevallion estate. After what I’ve gone through for the last eight years I would have been content with that. All I wanted was to have you always by my side.’
‘I love the creek but I’m glad we won’t be living in the big house. All that I care about is that wherever you are, I will be there too.’
Alex squeezed her happily. ‘You know how much I love you, don’t you, Becca?’
She kissed his cheek tenderly. ‘Yes, I do. You’ve changed so much, Alex, and I’ve watched every step. I know you so well and I know we’ll have a wonderful future together.’ They kissed in a way that told of the love they would always share, a love much stronger, deeper and longer lasting than a stretch of never-changing river. High above them the sun glinted on the tall windows of Trevallion House and the grand old building seemed to smile its blessing down on them.
First published in the United Kingdom in 1994 by Headline Book Publishing PLC
This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2019 by
Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
57 Shepherds Lane
Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 2DU
United Kingdom
Copyright © Gloria Cook, 1994
The moral right of Gloria Cook to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788636452
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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